UC-NRLF 


573 
N4 


O 


GIFT   ©F 
Harry  East  Miller 


MILITANT 
AMERICAN 
JOURNALISM 


She  fight  of 

THE  NEW  YORK  HERALD 

against  the 
$5,OOO,OX)O,OOO  BONUS  RAID 

directed  personally  by 

FRANK   A.  MUNSEY 


EDITORIALS 


Reprinted  from 
THE  NEW  YORK  HERALD 


FRANK  A.  MUNSEY 


>~ 


,  W  e 


FOREWORD 


N  THIS  wide  country  with  its  population  of  110,- 
000,000,  there  must  be  many  persons  who  do  not 
know  that  FRANK  A.  MUNSEY  alone  owns  and 
personally  directs  The  New  York  Herald  of  today; 
do  not  know  what  he  has  done  and  is  doing  with 
The  New  York  Herald',  do  not  know  how  greatly  and  strikingly 
the  new  flerald  differs  from  the  old  Herald,  and  why. 

While  Mr.  Munsey  was  conducting  The  Sun  vigorously  and 
fearlessly,  building  it  up  rapidly  but  solidly,  he  bought  The 
New  York  Herald  from  the  James  Gordon  Bennett  estate  two 
and  a  half  years  ago  and,  with  one  of  his  amazing  strokes  of 
achievement,  merged  these  two  morning  newspapers,  thereafter 
called  The  New  York  Herald,  while  the  Evening  Sun  became 
The  Sun. 

This  booklet  is  offered  without  his  knowledge  as  partial  tes- 
timony of  some  of  the  things  he  is  doing  with  The  New  York 
Herald,  and  the  way  he  is  doing  them.  It  is  offered  without  his 
permission  or  knowledge,  and  while  he  is  across  the  seas,  be- 
cause the  writer  has  no  doubt  that  if  Mr.  Munsey  did  know  of 
this  purpose  he  would  not  consent  to  its  execution. 

After  a  very  near  acquaintance  with  him  of  more  than  a  third 
of  a  century  and  an  intimate  association  with  him  in  newspaper 
making  of  more  than  a  decade,  I  hesitate  to  speak  of  his  great 
newspaper  work  in  great  public  causes  in  a  personal  manner 
he  would  not,  if  he  knew  of  the  fact,  approve.  I  am  unwilling  to 
refrain,  however,  from  speaking  some  small  part  of  the  truth 
that  is  the  due  of  the  public  to  know,  whatever  his  own 
reluctance  to  be  thrust  into  the  foreground  of  so  important 
a  chapter  in  the  history  of  militant  American  journalism, 
militant  for  service  to  the  public,  militant  for  principle  and 
for  the  right. 

Frank  A.  Munsey  personally  and  immediately  directed  the 
campaign  which  his  newspapers  successfully  waged  against  the 
international  programme  to  put  this  country  into  the  League 
of  Nations.  At  the  time  of  and  after  the  League  of  Nations 
contest,  he  would  not  permit  any  of  his  publications  to  make 


M82505 


?nf  iitiQti  jof  fli/'Je'ading  part  in  that  momentous  campaign.  In  his 
absence  abcb«d*rhe  writer  of  this  article  takes  advantage  of  the 
opportunity  to  state  the  plain  facts  of  that  battle,  crucial  in  the 
existence  of  the  Republic.  It  is  not  essential  to  the  purpose  of 
this  article  to  go  further  now  into  that  stirring  episode  in  our 
national  life.  It  does,  however,  seenf  to  the  writer  fitting  to 
enter  here  these  facts  in  the  record. 

This  booklet  contains  in  particular  a  few  chapters  of  the  great 
American  story  of  Mr.  Munsey's  splendid  uphill  fight,  through 
The  New  York  Herald,  against  the  Fordney-McCumber  scheme 
of  a  bonus  raid  on  the  National  Treasury  to  the  tune  of  five 
billions  of  dollars. 

It  is  the  writer's  belief  that,  with  the  single  exception  of  the 
President  himself,  Mr.  Munsey  has  done  more  effective  work 
in  the  fight  against  the  bonus  raid  than  any  other  individual 
in  the  country.  It  is  the  writer's  conviction,  based  on  a  close 
knowledge  of  all  the  circumstances,  that  if  The  New  York 
Herald,  under  the  leadership  and  direction  of  its  owner,  had 
not  gone  to  the  forefront  of  this  fight  against  the  bonus,  there 
would  have  been  no  real  fight  at  all. 

Truth  to  tell,  there  was  no  effective  opposition  anywhere  to 
the  bonus  raid  on  the  Treasury  until  The  Herald  began  to 
fight.  Until  then  nobody  thought  of  opposing  it  seriously. 
Nobody  thought  it  could  be  opposed  successfully.  Every- 
body took  it  for  granted  that  the  bonus  bill  was  bound 
to  go  through  Congress  and  become  law.  It  was  generally  ac- 
cepted as  a  foregone  conclusion.  The  writer  of  this  article  is 
of  the  conviction,  again  based  on  close  knowledge  of  all  the 
circumstances,  that  if  The  New  York  Herald,  at  the  immediate 
instance  and  under  the  personal  direction  of  its  owner,  had 
not  sprung  into  the  breach,  the  bonus  raid  would  have  gone 
through  by  default. 

This  fight  of  The  New  York  Herald  was  begun  and  carried 
on  by  Mr.  Munsey  in  the  face  of  warnings  that  it  meant  loss  of 
circulation  for  his  newspaper,  warnings  that  it  entailed  charges 
by  those  selfishly  interested  in  the  grab  that  he  was  unsym- 
pathetic, heartless,  and  even  mercenary — warnings  of  an  even 
uglier  nature. 


In  spite  of  these  warnings  he  took  his  stand  against  the  bonus 
raid,  and  never  from  that  day  to  this  did  he  falter.  He  took 
that  stand  on  conscience  and  conviction,  regardless  of  possible 
sacrifice  of  circulation  of  his  newspaper,  regardless  of  any  con- 
sideration except  public  duty,  and  he  waged  the  battle  unceas- 
ingly and  uncompromisingly  until  the  public,  at  last  aroused  to 
the  iniquity  of  the  Congress  scheme,  turned  against  it  definitely 
and  completely. 

No  other  newspaper  on  either  side  of  the  great  bonus  con- 
troversy has  waged  anything  like  the  campaign  The  New  York 
Herald  has  waged  against  it  under  Mr.  Munsey's  immediate 
direction,  with  all  his  deep-seated  conscience,  his  powerful 
personality  and  his  utter  disregard  of  mere  personal  or 
material  consequences  to  himself,  his  properties,  or  his  in- 
terests, whether  newspapers  or  periodicals,  banking  or  real 
estate,  enterprise  commercial  or  enterprise  industrial,  national 
or  international. 

To  the  writer  it  is  interesting  to  note  as  well,  and  it  will  be 
of  like  interest  to  other  newspaper  workers  who  give  attention 
to  the  growth  and  development  of  journalism  in  America,  that 
in  his  bonus  battle  for  unconditional  surrender  of  the  Treasury 
raiders  Mr.  Munsey  adopted,  for  the  first  time  so  far  as  the 
writer  knows,  the  telling,  terrific  method  of  iterated  and  reiter- 
ated slogans  against  the  raid  conspicuously  displayed  in  edi- 
torial boxes  on  the  first  page,  where  they  singularly  com- 
manded, seemed  to  compel,  national  attention. 

The  purpose  of  this  booklet  is  to  get  across  to  you  such  facts 
as  the  foregoing,  which  are  of  uncommon  moment  in  the  world 
of  newspaper  making,  of  uncommon  moment  in  this  country  of 
world  history  making — to  get  across  to  you  the  fact  that 
The  New  York  Herald,  as  conducted  by  Frank  A.  Munsey,  has 
principles  imbedded  in  rock-ribbed  conviction  and  is  willing 
to  fight  for  these  principles  to  the  finish. 

ERVIN  WARDMAN, 

V ice-President. 


The  Herald's  First  Broadside 


TO  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 


ONGRESS  is  bent  on  a  five  billion  dollar  bonus  dis- 
tribution to  ex-soldiers.  The  Government  has  no 
money  with  which  to  pay  the  bonus. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has  told  Congress 
the  Government  has  no  money  for  this  purpose.  The  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  has  got  to  refinance  six  billion  five  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  falling  due  within  the  next  fifteen  months. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  be  compelled  to  borrow  this 
six  billion  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  worst  of 
it  is  he  doesn't  know  where  he  can  get  it. 

And  yet,  in  this  situation,  taxed  well  nigh  to  the  breaking 
point,  as  you  are,  with  a  war  debt  of  twenty-three  billions  of 
dollars,  Congress  now  proposes  to  add  five  billions  of  dollars 
more  to  this  debt  on  which  interest  must  be  paid. 

The  Government  is  your  business  office.  The  management 
consists  of  the  men  you  have  selected  through  your  votes  to  run 
your  office,  to  manage  your  affairs.  This  business  of  yours  is 
vast,  and  it  requires  vast  sums  of  money  to  keep  it  going.  Your 
Government  is  already  spending  four  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars a  year  in  caring  for  and  rehabilitating  wounded  and  dis- 
abled soldiers.  Your  Government  is  already  paying  out  one 
billion  of  dollars  a  year  interest  on  war  debts.  Altogether  it  is 
costing  you  at  the  present  time  to  run  your  Government  four 
billions  of  dollars  a  year — four  thousand  millions  of  dollars. 
This  all  comes  out  of  you  in  taxes  either  direct  or  indirect.  The 
only  way  the  Government  can  get  money  is  by  chiseling  it  out 
of  you. 

The  duty  on  imported  goods  is  added  to  the  selling  price  of 
the  goods  you  buy  and  so  becomes  a  tax  on  you.  Internal 
revenues  are  a  tax  on  you.  The  fact  is  that  there  is  no  other 
source  from  which  your  Government  gets  any  money  of  any  con- 
sequence, or  can  get  any  money  of  any  consequence,  except 


Qovernment  Has  No  Money  to  Pay  Bonus 


The  Herald' s  First  Broadside 


from  you.  It  cannot  burglarize  it  out  of  other  countries.  No 
more  can  it  burglarize  it  out  of  the  planet  Mars  or  lure  it  from 
the  skies. 

The  money  you  get  comes  from  the  fields,  the  forest,  the 
mines  and  from  your  toil,  and  you  give  up  to  your  Government 
some  part  of  every  dollar  you  get  in  order  that  you  may  have 
a  Government  to  handle  your  interests. 

Congress  does  not  dig  down  into  its  own  pocket  for  the  money 
the  Government  must  have  to  pay  its  bills.  If  Congress  did  have 
to  dig  down  into  its  own  pocket  to  find  the  money  for  the  soldier 
bonus  the  soldiers  would  never  see  a  cent.  Nothing  short  of  a 
jimmy  could  get  a  cent  out  of  Congress.  But  checking  out  your 
money  is  easy;  checking  out  your  money  in  billions  of  dollars, 
for  something  on  the  side,  is  a  thrilling  business  for  Congress. 

Checking  out  your  money,  however,  for  legitimate  purposes; 
checking  out  your  money  for  the  necessities  of  the  Government ; 
checking  out  your  money  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order 
and  for  upholding  America's  position  among  the  nations  of  the 
world  is  strictly  all  right  if  done  conscientiously  and  with  intel- 
ligence. 

But  checking  out  your  money  for  something  that  should  have 
none  of  your  money;  checking  out  your  money  for  personal 
political  advantage ;  checking  out  your  money  with  eyes  fixed  on 
the  ballot  box,  writes  a  Congress  down  as  unfit  for  its  job. 

The  disheartening  thing  in  governments  is  the  chameleon 
nature  of  politician-statesmen.  In  the  campaign  for  election, 
with  alluring  promises  they  beg  you  to  take  them  on  in  your 
service;  installed  in  your  service  they  give  you  the  lash  of  the 
master.  In  the  campaign  for  election  they  beseech  you  for  a 
job;  installed  in  that  job  they  tell  you  where  you  get  off. 

It  is  the  ballot  box  that  is  goading  Congress  on  to  pass  the 
bonus  bill.  Congress  knows  that  in  the  large  majority  you  have 
no  patience  with  any  measure  committing  the  Government  to 
further  war  obligations.  But,  in  spite  of  this  fact,  the  leaders  in 
Congress  have  set  their  jaws  to  the  task  of  jamming  through 


Congress  Does  Not  Pay  the  Bonus 


The  Herald's  First  Broadside 


the  bonus  bill,  and  in  spite,  too,  of  the  fiirther  fact  that  there 
is  not  a  cent  of  money  in  the  strong  box  of  the  Government 
with  which  to  meet  it. 

When  vote  hunting  in  Congress  takes  on  this  desperate  phase, 
when  vote  hunting  in  Congress  supersedes  intelligence,  faith- 
ful service,  and  patriotic  statesmanskip,  it  is  high  time  for 
America  to  recognize  the  forces  that  are  shaping  for  new  and 
honest  issues  between  political  organizations. 

With  issues  of  impelling  interest,  issues  that  embody  prin- 
ciples, issues  that  challenge  convictions  in  the  place  of  the  arti- 
ficial issues  of  politician-statesmen  such  as  now  divide  the  two 
great  parties,  Congress  will  have  no  need  to  play  politics  and 
no  need  to  conjure  up  fetiches  on  which  to  bid  for  your  vote. 

The  soldier  bonus,  as  a  bid  for  votes  in  the  coming  election, 
is  the  most  flagrant  and  the  most  wicked  assault  on  your  pocket- 
book  ever  yet  made  in  Congress. 

Do  you  know  what  this  bonus  commitment  would  let  you  in 
for?  Let  us  see:  It  took  the  Government,  roughly,  half  a  cen- 
tury to  pay  its  Civil  War  debt  of  two  billion  six  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  We  have  now  a  war  debt  of  twenty-three  billions  of 
dollars.  Add  this  soldier  bonus  commitment  to  the  present  debt 
and  ask  yourself  when  the  Government  will  get  the  last  cent 
paid.  If  it  takes  one  hundred  years  to  clean  the  slate,  and  it 
might  take  even  longer,  this  soldier  bonus  alone,  treated  as  a 
part  of  the  whole,  would  amount,  roughly,  principal  and  inter- 
est, to  twenty  billions  of  dollars. 

This,  Mr.  Citizen,  is  some  problem.  If  you  can't  beat  the 
bonus  in  Congress,  you  can  beat  the  Congress  at  the  polls  that 
jams  it  through.  This  is  your  remedy. 


You  Can  Beat  the  Congress  That  Jams  Bonus  Through 


Protecting  His  Country  is  the  Young  Man's  Birthright 


HELP  THE  BROKEN 

AND  DISABLED 

SOLDIERS 

IOING  for  broken  and  disabled  sol- 
diers has  the  spontaneity  of  the 
heart  and  shows  right  instinct,  right 
action  on  the  part  of  the  people; 
paying  horizontal  bonuses  to  all  soldiers,  in- 
jured and  well  alike,  is  entirely  a  different 
matter.  The  one  is  human;  the  other  has  no 
justification. 

Protecting  his  country  is  the  young  man's 
birthright.  Protecting  his  country  is  the 
young  man's  opportunity  for  paying  the  price 
of  citizenship.  Protecting  his  country  is  the 
young  man's  opportunity  to  win  the  love  and 
applause  of  his  fellow  men. 

Doing  his  duty  calls  for  no  bonus.  Accept- 
ing a  bonus,  sound  of  limb  and  well  of  body, 
robs  him  of  the  dignity  of  his  position,  robs 
him  of  the  standing  of  true  citizenship.  Ac- 
cepting a  bonus  for  exercising  his  right  of 
citizenship  degrades  him  in  his  own  heart,  de- 
grades him  with  all  those  who  have  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  fitness  of  things. 


Doing  One's  Duty  Calls  for  No  Bonus 


Cannot  be  Justified  Because  it  is  Not  Sound 


SOLDIERING  IS  THE 
YOUNG  MAN'S  JOB 

HE  American  Government  cannot 
well  go  too  far  in  caring  for  our  dis- 
abled soldiers,  the  sick,  the  crippled 
and  the  incapacitated.  The  heart 
of  America  goes  out  to  all  these  and  demands 
succor  and  the  most  humane  solicitude  and 
care  for  them. 

But  a  horizontal  bonus  to  all  soldiers,  sick 
or  well,  rich  or  poor,  is  wholly  another  matter. 
It  cannot  be  justified  because  it  is  not  sound, 
cannot  be  justified  because  it  is  not  right. 

The  price  of  citizenship  to  the  young  man 
is  the  protection  of  his  country.  Soldiering  is 
his  job.  It  is  not  the  job  of  his  mother,  his 
father  or  his  sister.  Soldiering  is  the  job  of 
the  young  man,  and  in  this  capacity  he  has 
play  for  the  patriotism  that  is  his  birthright 
and  that  justifies  his  citizenship.  Doing  his 
duty  calls  for  no  bonus. 


Cannot  be  Justified  Because  it  is  Not  Right 

10 


The  Most  Wicked  Assault  on  Your  Pocket  Book 


TO  THE 

AMERICAN 

PEOPLE 

HE  soldier  bonus,  as  a  bid  for  votes 
in  the  coming  election,  is  the  most 
flagrant  and  the  most  wicked  assault 
on  your  pocketbook  ever  yet  made 
in  Congress. 

Do  you  know  what  this  bonus  commitment 
would  let  you  in  for?  Let  us  see:  It  took  the 
Government,  roughly,  half  a  century  to  pay 
its  Civil  War  debt  of  two  billions,  six  hundred 
millions  of  dollars. 

We  have  now  a  war  debt  of  twenty-three 
billions  of  dollars.  Add  this  soldier  bonus 
commitment  to  the  present  debt  and  ask  your- 
self when  the  Government  will  get  the  last  cent 
paid. 

If  it  takes  one  hundred  years  to  clean  the 
slate,  and  it  might  take  even  longer,  this  sol- 
dier bonus  alone,  treated  as  a  part  of  the 
whole,  would  amount,  roughly,  principal  and 
interest,  to  twenty  billions  of  dollars. 


Principal  and  Interest — 20  Billion  Dollars 


Checking  Out  Your  Money  for  Political  Qain 

THE  SICKENING  FACT 

ABOUT  THIS  BONUS 

LEGISLATION 


HERE  are  some  men  in  Congress  who 
are  conscientious  in  their  stand  for  the 
soldier  bonus.  They  are  relatively 

few.  THE  NEW  YORK  HERALD  respects 

them  as  it  always  respects  men  who  stand  for  and 
fight  for  the  thing  they  believe  in. 

The  sickening  fact  about  this  bonus  legisla- 
tion is  that  an  overwhelming  percentage  of  the 
men  in  Congress  openly  for  the  bonus  are  secret- 
ly opposed  to  the  bonus.  In  private  conversa- 
tion they  declare  themselves  against  it ;  in  public 
utterance  they  declare  themselves  for  it. 

One  Congressman  recently  went  so  far  as  to 
say  that  if  a  poll  of  Congress  were  taken  behind 
closed  doors  it  would  show  that  more  than  80 
per  cent,  of  Congress  was  against  the  bonus. 
Pressed  as  to  his  own  stand  he  said  he  was  em- 
phatically against  the  bonus,  but  if  the  measure 
were  put  to  a  vote  he  would  vote  for  it. 

And  this  is  your  Congress,  Mr.  Citizen — your 
representatives  who  are  checking  out  your 
money  for  their  own  political  gain. 


Privately  80  per  cent,  of  Congress  Against  Bonus 

12 


The  Most  Active  Promoter  of  the  Bonus 


Representative  Joseph  W.  Fordney 

Eighth  District  of  Michigan 
Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee 

WHY  FORDNEY? 

|HE  MOST  active  promoter  in  Congress  of  the  bonus 
raid  is  JOSEPH  W.  FORDNEY,  Representative  of  the 
Eighth  district  of  Michigan  for  the  last  twenty-two 
years.  Through  the  operation  of  the  antiquated 
seniority  rule  in  Congress  Representative  FORDNEY  is  the  chair- 
man of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

American  citizens  feel  justified  in  expecting  the  head  of  the 
most  important  committee  on  economic  matters  in  Congress 
to  apply  his  ability  and  influence  to  developing  adequate  sources 
of  revenues  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Government  and  pro- 


His  Job  Should  be  Saving  Money — Not  Wasting  It 


Recognised  Leader  of  a  Noisy  Minority 


tecting  the  interests  of  all  the  citizens  "that  live  under  it.  His 
job  is,  or  should  be,  that  of  raising  money  as  well  as  saving  it, 
and  not  wasting  it. 

In  the  present  financial  and  economic  condition  of  the  country 
a  conscientious  and  capable  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  could  render  services  »f  tremendous  value  to  the 
people  of  the  country  in  respect  of  this  problem.  Mr.  FORDNEY 
is  not  doing  so.  He  is  the  recognized  leader  of  a  small  but  effi- 
ciently organized  and  very  noisy  minority  of  citizens  who  are 
supporting  the  bonus  raid  on  the  Treasury  of  the  Government 
and  the  business  of  the  country.  He  appears  to  be  less  con- 
cerned with  his  legitimate  functions  of  raising  and  saving 
money  for  the  Government  than  with  scattering  it  among  the 
prospective  recipients  of  the  bonus  raid. 

In  doing  this  the  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee 
is  running  true  to  legislative  form.  His  record  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  has  blazed  a  consistent  trail  of  failure.  Al- 
though he  is  serving  his  twelfth  continuous  term  there  is  not 
one  really  important  piece  of  constructive  legislation  to  his 
credit.  He  has  probably  caused  more  embarrassment  to  the 
Harding  Administration  and  provoked  more  dissatisfaction 
among  the  Republican  leaders  of  the  country  than  any  other 
ten  men  in  the  House  and  Senate. 

FORDNEY  was  once  described  by  a  keen  political  observer  as 
"a  babbler  who  does  not  know  what  it  is  all  about,"  meaning 
the  science  and  common  sense  of  both  Congress  undertakings 
and  party  policies.  He  is  given  to  extravagant  statements,  al- 
ways "playing  to  the  galleries,"  scoffing  at  and  ignoring  opinions 
opposed  to  his  own. 

His  lack  of  tact  and  his  unintelligent  grasp  of  legislative  pro- 
jects are  deplored  by  his  own  associates  on  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee.  His  emergency  tariff  measure,  designed  to  alleviate 
depressing  agricultural  conditions,  has  been  a  miserable  fail- 
ure. After  six  months  of  operation  the  farmer  is  just  as  dis- 
contented as  he  was  before  the  passage  of  Mr.  FORDNEY'S  bill. 


"A  Babbler  Who  Does  Not  Know  What  it  is  All  About 

14 


A  Narrow;  Qauged  Partisan  of  Small  Caliber 


The  American  valuation  plan  sponsored  by  Mr.  FORDNEY  has 
been  completely  rewritten  by  the  Senate  Finance  Committee. 
It  is  doubtful  if  any  of  his  ideas  on  the  subject  will  be  accepted. 

The  one  business  the  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Com- 
mittee should  know  most  about  is  lumber.  He  has  been  en- 
gaged in  it  all  his  life  and  has  made  money  out  of  it.  Yet  the 
lumber  schedule,  personally  framed  by  Mr.  FORDNEY,  was  re- 
jected out  of  hand  by  his  associates  on  the  committee,  in  which 
action  they  were  supported  by  the  House  itself. 

Intelligent  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  who  correctly 
appraise  the  disastrous  effects  of  the  blunders  committed  by 
Mr.  FORDNEY  regard  him  as  "a  narrow  gauged  partisan  of  small 
caliber,"  obtuse  and  thickheaded.  Adherence  to  the  seniority 
rule  alone  prevented  them  from  selecting  for  Ways  and  Means 
chairman  a  man  better  fitted  by  business  experience,  tempera- 
ment, study  and  sense  of  party  obligations  for  that  important 
job. 

Mr.  FORDNEY  has  been  the  most  persistent  advocate  of  the 
bonus  raid  from  the  inception  of  the  professional  propaganda 
which  has  for  its  object  the  trading  of  votes  of  Congressmen  for 
votes  for  Congressmen. 

He  is  credited  with  having  personally  prepared  the  so-called 
"five  way  plan"  which,  if  adopted,  will  cost  the  citizens  of  the 
country  five  thousand  millions  of  dollars  in  the  form  of  gratui- 
ties demanded  by  a  small  number  of  well  organized  ex-service 
men,  but  opposed  by  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
American  people,  including  the  real  victims  of  the  world  war— 
the  wounded,  sick  and  helpless  ex-soldiers. 

Why  FORDNEY? 

Fordney  Goes 

REPRESENTATIVE  FORDNEY,  chairman  of  the  House 
Ways  and  Means  Committee  and  father  of  the  strange 
progeny,  the  Fordney  tariff,  the  Fordney  valuation  plan 
and  the  Fordney  bonus  bill,  has  announced  that  he  will 
quit  Congress  after  this  term  to  give  his  whole  attention 
to  his  lumber  business. 

The  Joseph  W.  Fordney  lumber  business's  gain  will 
not  be  the  country's  loss. 

Seniority  Rule  Alone  Made  Him  "Ways  and  Means "  Chairman 

15 


Self-Appointed  Dictator  of  United  States  Senate 


Senator  Porter  J.  McCumber 
of  North  Dakota 

McCUMBER  SEES  A  LIGHT 


ORTER    J.    McCuMBER,    United   States   Senator    from 
North  Dakota,  went  some  distance  in  self-appointed 
dictatorship   when  he   resolved   to   pass   his   bonus 
bill  in  the  face  of  the  disapproval  and  contempt  of 
the  American  people. 

Senator  McCuMBER  went  a  great  deal  further  when  he  set  out 
to  jam  his  bonus  bill  through  against  the  will  of  the  best 
statesmanship  and  soundest  character  represented  in  the  United 
States  Senate. 


Would  Jam  Bonus  Bill  Through  Against  Will  of  Citizens 


16 


Whole  United  States  Qovernment  and  American  Nation 


And  Senator  McCuMBER  went  'way  beyond  the  limit  when  in 
his  frenzy  he  threatened  to  bludgeon  his  bonus  bill  through 
against  the  opposition  of  the  American  people,  the  responsible 
Republican  membership  of  the  Senate  and  the  President  of 
the  United  States. 

In  that  state  of  mind  Senator  McCuMBER  seemed  to  think  he 
had  become  the  whole  United  States  Government  and  American 
nation,  and  he  then  decided  to  sidetrack  the  tariff  for  the  bonus. 
But  if  he  hasn't  come  to  his  senses,  at  least  he  has  been  brought 
up  with  a  round  turn. 

Anyhow,  after  shifting  his  gaze  from  his  own  imagined 
grandeur  to  the  attitude  of  the  majority  control  standing  with 
the  President  of  the  United  States  in  this  matter,  he  has  decided 
he  will  not  give  his  bonus  bill  the  right  of  way  over  all  other 
legislation  on  the  calender.  The  Senate,  in  sympathy  and  co- 
operation with  the  President,  will  be  permitted  to  dispose  of 
its  business  in  its  own  way. 

So  the  Senate  will  go  on  with  consideration  of  the  tariff  bill, 
which  McCuMBER  had  decreed  must  be  brushed  aside  for  the 
bonus  bill.  And  perhaps,  after  the  tariff  bill  has  been  disposed 
of,  Senator  McCuMBER  will  make  still  another  appraisal  of  his 
self-constituted  autocracy  and  discover  that,  even  when  his 
bonus  bill  does  come  up  for  action,  legislative  and  executive, 
neither  he  nor  it  is  bigger  than  both  branches  of  Congress,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  the  country. 

McCumber  Defeated 

Since  this  editorial  was  first  published  Senator  McCuM- 
BER has  experienced  the  humiliation  of  defeat  by  LYNN  J. 
FRAZIER,  former  non-partisan,  in  the  North  Dakota  Re- 
publican Primaries.  McCuMBER  will  not  return  to  the 
Senate.  Senator  MCCUMBER,  in  explaining  his  defeat, 
puts  it  on  the  ground,  in  the  last  analysis,  that  he  did  not 
get  the  votes.  That's  it.  He  did  not  get  the  Bonus  votes 
he  bargained  for.  His  is  the  sad  story,  the  miserable 
story,  of  bartering  one's  political  birthright  for  a  mess 
of  pottage,  and  not  even  getting  the  pottage. 


But  McCumber  Was  Not  Re-Nominated 


17 


Miss  Robertson  Exhibits  Stanch  Moral  Courage 


Representative  Alice  Robertson 

of  Oklahoma 
The  Only  Woman  Member  of  Congress 


MISS  ROBERTSON'S  COURAGE 

HE  ONLY  woman  member  of  Congress,  Miss  ALICE 
M.  ROBERTSON,  of  Oklahoma,  has  exhibited  stanch 
moral  courage  in  her  attitude  toward  the  bonus 
raid.  Long  before  the  nationwide  revolt  against 
the  bonus  had  attained  its  present  momentum  Miss  ROBERTSON, 
in  a  public  statement,  put  herself  on  record  as  flatly  opposed 
to  it  and  announced  her  intention  of  voting  against  it. 

Representative  ROBERTSON  did  not  wait  to  find  out  whether 
her  course  would  be  popular  in  her  district.    She  analyzed  the 


Her  Conscience  Rejected  the  Bonus  Proposal 


18 


A  Warm  Friend  of  the  Man  in  Uniform 


bonus  proposal,  her  intelligence  and  her  conscience  rejected 
it,  and  she  told  her  constituents  exactly  what  she  thought  of  it. 

From  the  moment  of  our  entrance  into  the  war  Miss  ROBERT- 
SON'S stanch  American  patriotism  and  her  womanly  sympathies 
for  the  men  who  were  to  expose  their  lives  for  their  country 
were  aroused.  In  all  Oklahoma  the  man  in  the  uniform  of  the 
United  States  had  no  warmer  friend  than  the  present  Repre- 
sentative from  the  Second  district  of  that  State.  She  had  no 
thought  of  being  a  member  of  Congress  then.  She  was  running 
a  large  restaurant  which  took  all  her  time,  and  one  of  the  first 
war  orders  she  issued  in  her  establishment  was  that  every 
service  man  was  to  have  his  meals  served  there  free  of  cost. 

Since  the  war  and  since  her  election  to  Congress  her  interest 
in  the  service  men  has  not  for  an  instant  abated.  One  of  her 
first  acts  on  reaching  Washington  was  to  appoint  a  service  man 
as  her  secretary.  Miss  ROBERTSON'S  acquaintance  with  service 
men  has  been  such  as  to  give  her  a  good  knowledge  of  their 
dispositions,  and  she  is  not  deceived  by  the  noise  a  few  are 
making  in  the  effort  to  convince  Congress  all  of  them  want 
the  bonus. 

Like  the  majority  of  other  Americans,  Miss  ROBERTSON'S 
respect  for  the  American  soldier  was  shocked  at  the  implication 
that  he  wanted  a  cash  tip  for  answering  his  country's  call  to 
defend  it  from  a  foreign  enemy.  No  vote  of  hers,  she  resolved, 
should  ever  expose  him  to  so  humiliating  a  suggestion.  She 
has  been  careful  at  all  times  not  to  confuse  the  statement  of 
her  position  on  the  bonus  question  with  any  qualification.  She 
was  opposed  to  the  bonus,  she  would  not  vote  for  it,  and  she 
said  so.  When  others  might  seek  smoke  screens  she  stood 
right  out  in  the  open  and  spoke  her  mind. 


Humiliated  by  the  Suggestion  of  a  Cash  Tip 

10 


Courageous  Senator  Affronts  Bonus  Raiders 


Senator  George  Wharton  Pepper 
of  Pennsylvania 

PEPPER  AND  THE 
BONUS  LOOTERS 

|HE  BONUS  bludgeon  is  being  aimed  directly  at  the 
head  of  GEORGE  WHARTON  PEPPER,  candidate  for 
the  Republican  nomination  for  United  States  Sen- 
ator in  Pennsylvania.  This  able  and  courageous 
citizen  of  the  Keystone  State  has  affronted  the  bonus  claimants 
by  opposing  their  audacious  raid  on  the  United  States  Treasury. 
Wherefore  the  bonus  raiders  have  arrogantly  demanded  his 
defeat  by  the  men  and  women  who  will  vote  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania primaries. 

Here  is  the  declaration  of  principles  of  the  American  Legion 
touching  on  political  activities: 


Opposes  Raid  on  United  States  Treasury 

20 


A  Prophecy  and  its  Fulfillment 


"The  organization  shall  be  non-political  and,  as  an  organiza- 
tion, shall  not  promote  the  candidacy  of  any  person  seeking 
public  office." 

In  view  of  the  insistent  and  impudent  demands  on  Congress 
for  the  bonus  loot;  in  view  of  the  nation-wide  pressure  on  men 
in  political  and  public  life  to  support  the  demands  for  the 
bonus;  in  view  of  the  specific  and  concentrated  attack  on 
Senator  PEPPER,  of  Pennsylvania,  because  of  his  conscientious 
and  honorable  opposition  to  the  bonus,  the  bonus  propagandists 
of  the  American  Legion  have  prostituted  the  high  purposes  of 
that  organization  to  the  plane  of  sheer  greed  and  selfishness, 
and  in  the  delirium  of  this  greed  and  selfishness  they  stop  at 
nothing  in  their  raid  on  the  Treasury. 

But  in  spite  of  the  bludgeoning  tactics  of  these  insistent  pro- 
pagandists THE  NEW  YORK  HERALD  confidently  believes  that 
the  serious,  sound  thinking  people  of  WILLIAM  PENN'S  great 
State  will  stand  in  solid  phalanx  on  primary  day  for  that  fine, 
clean,  able  son  of  old  Pennsylvania,  a  gentleman,  a  scholar,  a 
clear  thinker,  a  man  of  courage,  distinguished  lineage  and 
patriotic  purpose,  GEORGE  WHARTON  PEPPER,  than  whom  no 
State  in  the  Union  has  sent  a  better  man  to  the  United  States 
Senate  in  many  years. 

Some  Light  on  Bonus  Bogey 

Since  this  editorial  was  first  published  Senator  Pepper 
has  been  renominated  by  the  Republican  party  to  succeed 
himself  as  Senator  from  Pennsylvania. 

Representative  William  J.  Burke,  the  rival  of  Mr. 
Pepper,  voted  for  the  bonus  and  was  supported  by  offi- 
cials of  the  American  Legion  and  Veterans  of  Foreign 
Wars  and  such  members  of  those  organizations  as  are 
demanding  the  bonus. 

Senator  Pepper  was  nominated  in  spite  of  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  bonus  claimants  by  a  majority  of  more  than 
200,000  votes. 

Mr.  Burke,  who  voted  for  the  bonus  and  was  sup- 
ported by  the  bonus  claimants,  was  defeated  by  more 
than  200,000  votes. 


Pepper  Defeats  His  Bonus  Rival 

21 


Never  a  Slave  to  Political  Expediency 


Senator  William  E.  Borah 
of  Idaho 

SENATOR  BORAH 
ON  THE   BONUS 

ENATOR  BORAH'S  speech  011  the  soldier  bonus  was 
typical  of  the  Idaho  statesman.  He  is  never  an 
opportunist,  never  a  slave  to  party  expediency, 
never  a  demagogue.  He  long  has  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  the  finest  orator  in  Congress.  But  what  is  far 
more  important  is  that  he  is  the  boldest  and  bravest  man  in 
Congress. 

Mr.  BORAH  took  hold  of  the  bonus  question — the  great  legis- 
lative mistake  which  Congress  has  seemed  on  the  brink  of 
making — with  bare,  rough  hands.  He  tore  a  hole  in  its  false 


Handles  Bonus  with  Bare,  Rough  Hands 


22 


Wrenches  Mask  of  Words  from  the  Sham 


front  and  showed  its  real  face.  When  Senator  JONES,  of  New 
Mexico,  tried  to  get  BORAH  to  accept  the  phrase  "adjusted  com- 
pensation" instead  of  "bonus"  or  "gratuity,"  BORAH  wrenched 
the  mask  of  words  from  the  sham.  Adjusted  to  what?  To  the 
standard  of  a  stable  boy's  or  charwoman's  wages?  No,  it  would 
be  an  insult  if  offered  as  compensation;  it  must,  if  anything, 
be  a  gift. 

And  if  a  gift,  how  can  the  country  afford  to  give  it?  How 
can  a  Government  already  burdened  with  a  debt  of  twenty-four 
billions  afford  to  go  deeper  in  the  hole? 

Senator  BORAH  struck  his  most  telling  blow  when  he  brought 
up  the  matter  of  the  disabled  soldiers  and  sailors.  It  is  now 
costing  the  United  States  half  a  billion  dollars  a  year  to  care 
for  these  men.  As  Mr.  BORAH  said,  nobody  will  complain  of 
this  expenditure  so  long  as  the  appropriations  are  based  on  the 
necessities  and  requirements  of  the  disabled  veterans.  There 
will  be  no  complaint  if  it  becomes  necessary,  as  Mr.  BORAH 
predicts,  to  spend  a  billion  and  a  half  a  year  on  these  men  ten 
years  from  now. 

But  the  care  of  the  disabled  soldiers  and  sailors  is  now  costing 
the  United  States  as  much  as  the  total  expenses  of  the  Govern- 
ment twenty  years  ago.  This  care  of  men  who  were  incapa- 
citated in  their  country's  service  cannot  be  lessened.  Even  if 
the  total  cost  is  seventy-five  billions  in  the  next  forty  or  fifty 
years  it  must  be  paid.  There  is  a  great  moral  obligation  of  a 
nation  to  men  who  can  no  longer  help  themselves.  There  can 
be  no  shirking  and  no  skimping.  BORAH  showed  his  feeling 
in  regard  to  the  helpless  veterans  when  he  declared  that  the 
Government  is  not  doing  enough  by  them,  even  when  it  is 
spending  half  a  billion  a  year  for  their  relief. 

If  we  are  not  doing  enough  now  for  the  disabled  men,  how 
are  we  going  to  do  any  more  when  a  bonus  law  begins  to  pour 
between  three  and  six  billion  dollars  into  the  pockets  of  men 
who  emerged  from  the  war  unscathed  and,  most  of  them,  in 


Deep  Feeling  for  Wounded  Veterans 

23 


Bonus  Likely  to  Cheapen  Care  of  Injured 


better  physical  trim  than  when  they  were*  enlisted?  When 
Congress,  which  is  now  made  frantic  by  the  bonus  hunters, 
turns  even  more  frantically  a  year  hence  to  reduce  expenses, 
which  soldier  will  be  the  subject  of  economy? 

Will  it  be  the  recipient  of  a  bonus,  the  man  with  a  vote? 

• 
Or  will  it  be  the  disabled  soldier,  perhaps  the  insane  soldier? 

If  Congress  acts  in  that  day  as  it  is  acting  now  it  will  be  the 
disabled  soldier  whose  care  will  be  cheapened  in  order  that 
the  bonus  man  may  not  be  angered. 

The  duty  of  the  unscathed  soldier  is  as  plain  as  that  of  any 
other  able  bodied  citizen.  He  should  help  his  country,  not 
hinder  it.  "If  we  engage  in  this  proposition  of  distributing 
public  money,"  said  Senator  BORAH — and  the  warning  ought 
to  be  heeded  by  every  service  man — "it  will  grow  worse  for 
him  as  well  as  for  his  fellow  citizens.  It  will  become  a  com- 
petition, as  in  Europe,  of  one  class  invading  the  Treasury  one 
day  and  another  class  invading  the  Treasury  the  next  day.  The 
hour  of  sacrifice  is  now." 

Yes,  the  hour  is  now!  And  let  those  members  of  Congress 
who  see  in  the  bonus  a  way  of  buying  votes  with  the  public's 
money  take  heed  of  the  hour!  They  cannot  plead  that  they 
did  not  understand  what  they  were  doing.  WILLIAM  E.  BORAH, 
in  his  great  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate  on  Monday, 
pointed  the  way  of  truth  and  duty. 


The   Remedy 

//  the  protest  of  the  American  people  cannot  beat  the  bonus 
in  Congress  the  votes  of  the  American  people  can  beat  the 
Congress  that  jams  it  through. — Front  page  editorial. 


The  Hour  of  Sacrifice  is  Now/" 

24 


Fears  to  be  Wrong  More  than  he  Fears  Criticism 


Senator  George  H.  Moses 
of  New  Hampshire 

OUT  IN  THE  OPEN 
FOR    THE    RIGHT 

HE  KIND  of  man  who  shines  in  public  life  as  in 
private  life  is  not  the  man  who  shakes  in  his  boots 
at  threats;  not  the  man  who  cannot  change  from  an 
unsound  course  to  a  sound  course  in  the  face  of 
abusive  criticism.  He  is  the  man  who  fears  to  be  wrong  more 
than  he  fears  criticism  and  who  dares  to  correct  his  mistaken 
attitude  so  as  to  be  right. 

Such  a  man  is  Senator  MOSES,  of  New  Hampshire,  who  stood 
up  in  the  United  States  Senate  and  announced  that  although 


Changes  from  an  Unsound  to  Sound  Course 


25 


Example  for  Senator  Colder  of  New  York  to  Follow 


he  had  committed  himself  to  support  the  bonus  measure  he 
must  give  notice  to  those  to  whom  his  promise  had  been  made 
that  he  could  not  now  go  forward  with  it.  This  is  splendid,  it 
is  the  real  stuff,  and  is  an  example  for  men  like  Senator  CALDER, 
of  New  York,  and  Senator  FRELINGHUYSEN,  of  New  Jersey,  to 
follow. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  first  in  doing  the  thing  one  should 
do,  however  awkward  it  is.  It  may  be  easier  for  the  other 
fellow  to  follow,  but  he  will  have  no  distinction.  Bearing  on 
the  thing  Senator  MOSES  has  done,  THE  NEW  YORK  HERALD 
has  said: 

"The  man  who  has  it  in  him  to  acknowledge  ke  has  made  a 
mistake  has  courage;  the  man  who  comes  to  know  he  has  made 
a  mistake  and  hasn't  it  in  him  to  put  himself  right  is  a  poor 
thing." 

Senator  CARTER  GLASS,  of  Virginia,  is  the  kind  of  man  who 
merits  and  receives  the  admiration  of  political  supporter  and 
political  opponent  alike.  Senator  GLASS,  never  for  the  bonus 
measure  and  with  nothing  to  daunt  him  in  the  performance 
of  his  duty  to  vote  against  it,  answers  a  brow-beating  constituent 
in  his  State  that  he  was  not  sent  to  the  Senate  to  be  a  sounding 
board  for  any  particular  group. 

Senator  MOSES,  of  New  Hampshire,  is  a  Republican.  Senator 
GLASS,  of  Virginia,  is  a  Democrat.  And  in  these  two  examples 
of  rugged  courage  and  fine  loyalty  to  principle  who  dare  all  to 
be  right  and  fear  nothing  but  to  go  wrong,  the  country  beholds 
the  lasting  truth  that  in  the  minds  of  big  timbered  public 
officials  patriotic  duty  cannot  be  tied  to  a  partisan  hitching 
post. 


Senator  Qlass  Answers  Brow-beating  Constituent 

26 


Editorials  Reprinted  from  the  Front  Page 

^— ^— •j^-^— »— i^ ^— ^ 

Passing  the  Buck  to  Your  Children 

and  Your  Children's 

Children 


AFFLED  at  every  turn  in  their  frenzy  to  put 
over  the  bonus,  McCumber  and  his  followers 
are  now  by  way  of  getting  back  of  the  miserable 
makeshift  bonus  scheme,  paid  up  insurance. 
This  means  passing  the  buck  to  your  children  and  to 
your  children's  children — means  the  burden  of  paying  the 
bonus  will  fall  on  them  long  after  the  men  of  this  genera- 
tion have  passed  on.  Is  this  the  kind  of  legacy  the  Ameri- 
can fathers  and  mothers  wish  passed  on  to  their  children? 


The  Lash  of  The  Master 

It  is  the  ballot  box  that  is  goading  Congress  on  to  pass 
the  bonus  bill.  The  leaders  in  Congress  have  set  their  jaws 
to  the  task  of  jamming  through  the  bonus  bill,  and  in  spite, 
too,  of  the  fact  that  there  is  not  a  cent  of  money  in  the 
strong  box  of  the  Government  with  which  to  meet  it. 

The  disheartening  thing  in  governments  is  the  chame- 
leon nature  of  politician-statesmen.  In  the  campaign  for 
election,  with  alluring  promises  they  beg  you  to  take  them 
on  in  your  service;  installed  in  your  service  they  give  you 
the  lash  of  the  master.  In  the  campaign  for  election  they 
beseech  you  for  a  job;  installed  in  that  job  they  tell  you 
where  you  get  off. 


Ballot  Box  Qoads  Congress  to  Pass  Bonus 


27 


Editorials  Reprinted  from  the  Front  Page 


Bulling  the  Bonus 
Through 

R.  MELLON,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  sent 
to  Chairman  Fordney  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  on  Saturday  a  long  and  earefully 
worked  out  statement  showing  the  financial 
burdens  of  the  country  and  pointing  out  what  it  will  mean 
to  the  country  in  additional  burdens  if  the  Fordney  bonus 
bill  is  passed. 

It  was  a  masterful  document,  clear  and  convincing,  in 
which  Secretary  Mellon  left  no  room  for  doubt  that  the 
passage  of  this  bonus  bill  would  be  a  national  calamity. 

Chairman  Fordney  notwithstanding  treats  this  state- 
ment of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  with  cold  contempt, 
and  with  sheer  bravado  says  he  will  jam  his  bonus  bill 
through  in  spite  of  what  Mellon  says,  commenting  that 
the  Treasury  Department  doesn't  know  what  it  is  talking 
about. 

The  arrogance  of  these  Republican  bonus  Congressmen 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Republican  party  is  not  com- 
mitted to  the  bonus  is  beyond  all  exhibits  of  the  kind  in 
the  history  of  national  legislation  and  national  politics. 

Mr*  Citizen! 

The  soldier  bonus,  as  a  bid  for  votes  in  the  coming 
election,  is  the  most  flagrant  and  the  most  wicked  assault 
on  your  pocketbook  ever  yet  made  in  Congress. 

If  Congress  had  to  dig  down  into  its  own  pocket  to  find 
the  money  for  the  soldier  bonus  the  soldiers  would  never 
see  a  cent.  Nothing  short  of  a  jimmy  could  get  a  cent  out 
of  Congress. 


Passage  of  Bonus  Bill  National  Calamity 

28 


Editorials  Reprinted  from  the  Front  Page 


The  Boomerang  Bonus 


who  have  lined  up  for  the  bonus 
to  save  their  own  political  scalps,  looting  the 
Treasury  to  save  their  own  political  scalps,  now 
find  the  bonus  a  boomerang. 
This  is  what  has  happened  in  the  Illinois,  Indiana  and 
Pennsylvania  primaries.  Six  bonus  Congressmen  were 
turned  down  hard  in  Pennsylvania  Tuesday.  One  of  these, 
William  J.  Burke,  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate, 
was  buried  by  a  majority  of  more  than  200,000  in  favor 
of  Senator  Pepper,  a  red  hot  fighting  opponent  of  the 
bonus. 

The  fact  is  the  American  people  have  no  use  for  the 
Congressman  who  sells  them  out  to  satisfy  his  own  politi- 
cal greed. 

Going  On  with  the  Loot  Because 

They  Promised 

the  Loot 

Bitterly  scored  by  press  and  public  for  their  bonus 
Treasury  raiding,  the  bonus  Congressmen  urge  in  defense 
of  themselves  the  fact  that  they  made  pre-election  promises 
to  their  soldier  constituents  to  put  through  a  bonus  bill. 

What  right  have  these  politician-statesmen  to  promise 
to  check  out  your  money,  Mr.  Citizen,  for  their  own  politi- 
cal advantage,  their  own  political  greed?  Recourse  to  pre- 
election promises  in  this  bonus  looting  is  a  cowardly 
business. 

The  man  who  has  it  in  him  to  acknowledge  he  has  made 
a  mistake  has  courage;  the  man  who  comes  to  know  he  has 
made  a  mistake  and  hasn't  it  in  him  to  acknowledge  he  has 
made  a  mistake  and  to  put  himself  right  is  a  poor  thing. 


Congressmen  Find  Bonus  a  Boomerang 


29 


Editorials  Reprinted  from  the  Front  Page 


Watering  the  American  Dollar 


AFFLED  on  every  hand  in  its  struggles  to  find 
the  money  for  the  bonus,  the  shifty  Ways  and 
Means  Committee  now  proposes  in  its  despera- 
tion to  water  the  Amerfcan  dollar. 
Its  latest  plan  to  chisel  five  billions  of  dollars  out  of  the 
people  for  the  bonus  is  to  have  the  Government  issue  its 
promissory  notes  to  the  soldiers,  with  a  provision  com- 
pelling the  national  banks  of  the  country  to  make  loans 
to  soldiers  for  a  period  of  three  years  on  these  notes  of 
eighty-five  cents  on  the  dollar. 

This  is  nothing  short  of  economic  idiocy.  The  banks 
have  no  available  funds  for  such  loans.  The  printing 
press  alone  can  furnish  the  banks  with  the  money,  and 
printing  press  money  is  watered  money,  and  every  thou- 
sand millions  of  printing  press  money  thrown  in  with  the 
good  money  waters  all  the  money — waters  your  money, 
Mr.  Citizen,  and  cuts  down  its  buying  power,  the  buying 
power  of  your  dollar. 

This  is  politics,  Mr.  Citizen,  raw  politics — a  desperate 
raid  on  your  pocket  for  personal  political  gain. 

The  Shriek  of  the  Purist 

For  two  or  three  years  the  purists  in  Congress  have 
viewed  with  horror  the  alleged  expenditures  made  by 
Senator  Newberry  from  his  own  purse — from  his  own 
purse,  mind  you — to  secure  his  nomination  for  the  United 
States  Senate.  To-day  many  of  these  same  men — these 
same  purists,  mind  you — who  denounced  Newberry  in  bit- 
terest and  most  scathing  terms,  are  themselves  out  for  the 
purchase  of  votes,  but  this  time  not  with  their  own  money 
but  with  your  money,  Mr.  Citizen.  This  is  what  jamming 
through  the  bonus  bill  means,  stated  in  cold  facts. 


Out  to  Purchase  Votes  with  Your  Money 

30 


Bonus  Equals  AH  the  Savings  of  9,445,000 


THE  BONUS  EXPRESSED  IN 
SAVINGS  BANK  DEPOSITS 


STARTLING  idea  of  what  it  is  that  Congress  wants 
to  do  to  the  money  of  the  American  people  with  its 
proposed  bonus  of  five  billions  of  dollars  can  be 
gathered  from  a  comparison  of  that  colossal  sum 
with  the  savings  bank  deposits  of  the  people  of  the  country. 

In  the  mutual  savings  banks  of  the  country  (the  ordinary 
type  of  savings  bank,  such  as  the  Bowery,  the  Emigrant  and 
the  other  savings  institutions  with  which  New  York  is  familiar) 
there  are  9,455,327  depositors  with  savings  to  their  credit  of 
$5,186,845,000. 

The  money  which  Congress  wants  to  draw  out  of  the  people 
through  the  national  Treasury  for  bonus  purposes,  in  other 
words,  is  just  about  equal  to  all  that  is  represented  in  the  life 
savings  of  9,445,000  depositors  in  these  savings  banks. 

These  savings  bank  deposits  of  $5,186,845,000,  which  are  the 
results  of  the  self-denial  and  frugal  care  through  the  years, 
decades  and  generations  of  the  nine  and  a  half  million  deposi- 
tors, are  the  provision  made  by  them,  in  fact,  for  their  families, 
numbering  by  the  United  States  census  statistics  some  40,000,000 
souls,  men,  women  and  children.  And  what  this  represents  to 
those  40,000,000  souls  is  what  Congress  proposes  to  vote  out  of 
the  people  as  a  soldier  bonus. 

What  do  the  American  people  think  of  a  Congress  proposi- 
tion which  amounts  in  its  money  totals  to  stripping  these 
9,445,000  depositors  in  the  savings  banks  and  their  40,000,000 
dependents  bare  of  all  their  life  savings  of  $5,186,845,000? 


Stripping  Depositors  of  Life  Savings 


An  Exaggerated  Idea  of  Ability  to  Pay 


THE  GOVERNMENT' IS  RICH; 
LET  THE  GOVERNMENT  PAY 

HE  LETTERS  contending  for  the  bonus  that  we 
have  received  from  ex-service  men  since  THE  NEW 
YORK  HERALD  began  its  protest  against  Congress 
passing  a  bonus  bill,  reveal  a  point  of  view  which 
in  a  measure  accounts  for  their  insistence  on  receiving  a  bonus 
from  the  Government. 

The  Government  is  rich,  the  Government  has  most  of  the  gold 
in  the  world;  let  the  Government  pay.  This  is  the  central  idea 
running  through  the  bulk  of  these  letters.  It  is  this  idea  of  the 
Government's  wealth,  this  idea  of  the  Government's  ability  to 
pay  the  bonus  without  the  slightest  difficulty  that,  apparently, 
has  much  to  do  with  the  attitude  of  the  soldiers  who  are  still 
contending  for  a  bonus. 

In  this  exaggerated  idea  of  the  Government's  immeasurable 
wealth  and  ability  to  pay,  the  soldiers  who  demand  the  bonus 
do  not  differ  widely  from  the  generally  lax  attitude  of  the 
American  people  to-day.  The  fact  is  every  one  seems  to  have 
lost  all  sense  of  proportion.  Money  no  longer  means  anything. 
It  is  checked  out  and  chipped  out  and  shoveled  out  as  if  it  had 
no  more  value  than  the  sands  of  the  sea. 

Prices  of  everything  are  grotesque.  The  cost  of  having  any- 
thing repaired  is  prohibitive.  Restaurant  charges,  hotel 
charges,  amusement  charges,  no  longer  have  any  adequate 
relation  to  the  cost  of  money  measured  in  honest  toil  and  the 
sweat  of  the  brow. 

This  is  all  highly  artificial,  wholly  unsound  and  it  cannot  go 
on  for  long  without  wrecking  the  country.  There  is  a  point 
beyond  which  no  business  can  go  in  the  matter  of  its  indebted- 
ness without  collapse;  there  is  a  point  beyond  which  no  Govern- 
ment can  go  in  the  matter  of  its  indebtedness  without  collapse 
unless  it  squeeze  the  life  blood  out  of  its  people  in  tax  tribute 
to  keep  it  going.  Business  having  no  such  resource  goes  down. 

We  Have  Lost  All  Sense  of  Proportion 

32 


Abnormal  Viewpoint  About  Profligate  Spending 


If  a  business  is  paying  out  a  million  dollars  a  year  in  interest 
on  its  debts  and  is  earning  only  a  million  dollars  it  is  just  break- 
ing even,  no  more.  If  a  business  has  allowed  its  indebtedness 
so  to  increase  that  the  interest  charges  on  this  indebtedness  are 
a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars,  or  a  million  and  a  half  of 
dollars,  and  its  income  is  only  a  million  dollars  the  business 
is  doomed. 

With  the  income  of  a  business  just  a  little  larger  than  its 
interest  payments,  it  is  by  way  of  digging  itself  out  from  under 
its  burdens;  with  its  income  less  than  its  interest  charges  the 
end  is  in  sight.  This  holds  equally  true  with  Governments  as 
with  individuals  and  corporations. 

If  the  Government  gets  out  of  the  people  four  billions  of 
dollars  in  taxes,  and  pays  out  for  expenses  of  running  the 
Government  and  for  interest  on  its  indebtedness  four  billions 
of  dollars  it  is  barely  holding  its  own.  This  is  the  condition  of 
the  United  States  Government  to-day.  If  the  Government  adds 
five  billions  of  dollars  more  to  the  twenty-three  billions  of 
dollars  it  already  owes  and  doesn't  chisel  any  money  out  of  the 
people  to  swell  its  income,  it  will  be  on  the  skids  headed  for 
financial  collapse. 

In  the  opinion  of  THE  NEW  YORK  HERALD  it  is  this  abnormal 
viewpoint  of  the  country  with  regard  to  money  values,  with 
regard  to  profligate  spending,  with  regard  to  an  worthwhile 
appreciation  of  sound  economies,  sound  thrift,  that  accounts 
for  the  attitude  of  ex-service  men  still  contending  for  the  bonus 
who  feel  that  the  Government,  owning,  as  they  see  it,  well  nigh 
all  the  gold  in  the  world,  can  just  as  well  as  not  give  them  a 
gratuity  of  extra  pay  for  their  war  services. 

It  is  the  belief  of  THE  NEW  YORK  HERALD  that  if  this  un- 
natural, unsound,  reckless  viewpoint  did  not  obtain  generally 
throughout  the  country,  our  soldiers  would  hold  a  more  whole- 
some view  concerning  the  bonus — the  soldiers,  we  mean,  who 
are  still  contending  for  the  bonus. 


••^•^•••••••^  I  .••  I  •••^•^••••^•^••••••••••••^••^^MM^^^^MI^^^^,     |         ...  •!!!••          I  I.     I    I  •••^•^•^•1 

Qovernment  Finance  will  be  on  the  Skids 


Many  Bonus  Supporters  Have  Large  Fortunes 

POOR  SENATORS  AGAINST 
THE  BONUS 


ENATOR  LADD,  of  North  Dakota,  who  wants  to  give  to 
the  bonus  grabbers  all  £hey  demand,  wants  to  give 
it  to  them  right  away  and  wants  to  give  it  to  them 
in  printing-press  money,  says: 
4It  is  my  belief  that  most  of  this  opposition  to  the  soldiers 
compensation  has  been  fathered  by  the  big  banks." 

It  will  be  news  to  the  conscientious  patriotic  and  fearless 
Senator  BORAH,  of  Idaho,  that  he  is  influenced  or  could  be  in- 
fluenced by  the  "big  banks"  of  Wall  Street  or  any  other  part 
of  the  country.  It  will  be  news  to  him  that  financial  interests 
of  any  kind  or  of  any  locality  have  the  slightest  relations  or 
the  faintest  sympathy  with  his  always  boldly  independent 
course.  And  Senator  BORAH,  a  poor  man,  serving  his  country 
in  Congress  at  heavy  personal  sacrifice,  is  a  powerful  and  irre- 
concilable opponent  of  the  whole  vicious  bonus  scheme. 

Another  man,  Senator  WILLIAMS,  of  Mississippi,  with  no 
financial  contacts,  delivered  in  the  Senate  only  three  days  ago 
a  burning  indictment  of  the  bonus  hunters  and  of  the  political 
bidders  for  the  votes  of  the  bonus  hunters.  Senator  WILLIAMS 
also  is  a  poor  man,  compelled  after  years  of  work  in  public 
office  to  withdraw  from  the  Senate  because  of  the  financial 
burdens  his  distinguished  career  has  put  upon  him.  And  he  is 
going  to  fight  the  bonus  grab  every  inch  of  the  way  to  the  last 
day  he  remains  in  the  Senate. 

Again,  a  poor  man  from  Minnesota,  Senator  NELSON,  who 
himself  was  a  soldier  in  the  civil  war,  has  been,  is,  and,  so  long 
as  he  stays  in  the  Senate,  will  be  a  conspicuous  leader  on  the 
firing  line  against  the  bonus  raid  on  the  national  Treasury. 


Senator  Borah  Cannot  be  Influenced  by  Wall  Street 

34 


Senator  Qlass  is  not  a  Rich  Man 


The  same  thing  is  true  of  Senator  GLASS,  not  a  rich  man;  of 
Senator  SWANSON,  not  a  rich  man;  of  Senator  KING,  not  a  rich 
man;  of  Senator  SHIELDS,  not  a  rich  man;  of  many  others, 
Republicans  and  Democrats,  not  rich  men. 

TLere  are  Senators  with  large  fortunes  for  the  bonus,  like 
CAPPER,  as  there  are  Senators  with  fortunes  against  the  bonus, 
like  COLT,  but  the  rich  man  count  is  no  more  noteworthy  than 
the  poor  man  count,  the  one  way  or  the  other. 

Senator  LADD,  who  knows  this,  cannot  honestly  believe  that  a 
full  purse  or  a  slim  purse  in  the  pocket  of  a  member  of  Congress 
has  anything  to  do  with  his  alignment  for  or  against  the  bonus 
iniquity.  And  Senator  LADD,  who  knows  how  the  members  of 
the  Senate  stand  on  the  bonus,  for  and  against,  cannot  honestly 
believe  that  influence  from  the  financial  centers  exerts  any  more 
or  any  less  force  in  stimulating  bonus  opposition  by  poor  Sena- 
tors than  it  exerts  in  controlling  bonus  support  by  millionaire 
Senators. 

What  does  inspire  and  invigorate  the  splendid  opposition 
shown  in  the  Senate  to  the  bonus  raid  is  the  high  sense  of  public 
duty  and  the  American  scorn  for  threatening  bludgeons.  What, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  responsible  for  the  main  Congress  support 
of  the  bonus  raid  by  rich  members  or  by  poor  members  is  greed 
for  votes  that  can  be  won  with  drafts  on  the  public  Treasury 
and,  as  the  rugged  Senator  WILLIAMS  said  in  his  lofty  speech 
against  the  bonus  hunters  and  against  the  bonus  legislators, 
political  cowardice. 

The  Betrayal 

The  most  disturbing  thing  in  connection  with  the  proposed 
bonus  loot  of  the  Treasury  is  the  duplicity  of  Congress.  Stagger- 
ing as  it  would  be  to  the  country  to  shoulder  an  additional  war 
debt  of  five  billions  of  dollars  for  bonus  payments,  the  debt  in 
itself  would  mean  far  less  to  the  country  than  the  fact  that  it 
had  been  sold  out  and  by  its  own  men  for  their  political  gain. 

— Front  page  editorial. 


Senator  King  is  not  a  Rich  Man 


35 


Wedged  Between  Devil  and  Deep  Blue  Sea 


A  BONUS  TIEUP 


ONUS  politicians  in  Congress,  both  the  McCumber 
brand  in  the  Senate  and  the  Fordney-Mondell 
brand  in  the  House,  are  in  a  panic  over  the  definite 
official  and  final  notice*  they  now  expect  from 
President  HARDING  that  a  sales  tax  to  get  out  of  the  public  the 
five  billions  of  dollars  needed  to  pay  the  bonus  is  the  one  plan 
the  Chief  Executive  of  the  United  States  would  accept. 

At  the  same  time  the  Treasury  raiders  in  Congress,  trying 
to  put  over  the  stupendous  grab  for  their  own  political  ad- 
vantage in  the  coming  elections,  frankly  acknowledge  that  the 
sales  tax  is  the  one  plan  the  agricultural  representatives  in  the 
Senate  and  in  the  House  will  not  accept. 

If  the  McCumbers,  Fordneys  and  Mondells  were  to  prepare 
a  bonus  measure  with  the  sales  tax  to  finance  it  they  know  they 
would  have  to  fight  the  very  element  in  Congress  on  which  they 
have  been  relying  to  jam  the  bonus  bill  through.  And  they  do 
not  fool  themselves  that  they  could  successfully  fight  it. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  McCumbers,  Fordneys  and 
Mondells  were  to  try  to  jam  through  a  bonus  measure  without 
the  sales  tax  to  finance  it,  they  realize  they  would  have  to  fight 
the  President's  friends  and  supporters  in  Congress.  And  they 
know  these  Harding  followers  could  be  as  strong  for  the  Pres- 
ident as  the  agricultural  members  are  strong  against  the  sales 
tax. 

This  stubborn  alignment  of  forces,  irreconcilable  on  the  one 
side  as  against  the  bonus  without  the  sales  tax  and  irreconcilable 
on  the  other  side  as  against  the  sales  tax  with  the  bonus,  pres- 
ages that  the  bonus  grab  may  soon  be  discovered  wedged  be- 
tween the  devil  and  the  deep  blue  sea.  The  American  people 
who  do  not  like  the  public  burden  that  would  be  piled  on  them 
by  the  bonus,  do  not  countenance  the  high  handedness  of  and 
cannot  tolerate  the  morals  of  the  bonus,  will  agree  that  there 
is  the  place  for  it  to  stick. 


— and  There  is  the  Place  for  it  to  Stick 

36 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed.  * 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


DEC  23  1947 


21955UJ 


MOV2119551U 


LD  21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


APR  2  3  1959 


Stockton,  Calif. 
T.  M.  Reg.  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


M82505 


373 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


